We are now in Chapter 2 of Megilat Esther. Ahashverosh is gathering girls together in order to choose his new wife, and we are introduced to Esther, whose parents passed away. The Gemara says that her father passed away while her mother was pregnant, and her mother passed away in childbirth, so she never even met her parents.
Surely, this was a very tragic event at the time. This young girl lost both her parents, and was taken in by her uncle, who raised her.
Obviously, no one was able to understand why Hashem was doing this. But after the fact, we can see some reasons why.
Firstly, the whole miracle came about through the element of surprise. Haman wanted to kill the Jewish people, but he had no idea that Esther was Jewish.
Esther’s identity was hidden by the fact that she was an orphan. It was wartime, and she could honestly say that she had never met her parents. Therefore, her identity as a Jew was concealed.
Furthermore, Mordechai advised her not to share her identity, because he had instructed her to hide. That’s why the pasuk says that Esther was, “taken.” She did not go willingly.
Since she was taken against her will, Mordechai was afraid that the Jewish people would get in trouble if her identity was discovered. Why didn’t the Jewish girl want to become the queen, they might wonder. Therefore, Mordechai told her not to share her nationality. Even once this reason resolved, as Ahashverosh was throwing parties and loved her, Mordechai continued to advise her to keep her Jewish identity a secret, although he had no idea that the element of surprise would be necessary in order for the miracle to occur in the future.
This shows, says the Gaon of Vilna, how God guides the Talmidei Chachamim.
Mordechai gave her that advice for a completely different reason, but it ended up setting up the element of surprise that was necessary.
So Esther’s status as an orphan helped with this plan, as is a well-known understanding.
Chacham Ovadia, in his commentary on Megilat Esther, brings out another reason her nationality was hidden. He says that, as discussed in first perek, the reason Vashti got killed was because at the party, men from the various (127) countries got drunk, and began talking about women. The men from each country bragged that their women were the most beautiful. Ahashverosh felt the need to show that his wife, a Babylonian, was the most beautiful of all, and therefore commanded her to come out in an inappropriate fashion… and the rest is history.
Chacham Ovadia says Hashem wanted to set it up so that Esther would be protected. Since Ahashverosh didn’t know her identity, and didn’t know where she came from, her nationality could not become a source of competition, as no one knew what nation she was from.
Furthermore, it says that Esther found favor in the eyes of everyone that saw her. The Gemara tells us that this meant that everyone looked at Esther and claimed that she was from their nation. She had a special חןChen/ charm. Everyone looked at her in this special way, and somehow believed she was theirs.
This was all for the purpose of setting up the miracle that would come years later.
This is an important lesson in Hashgacha for us, how Hashem sets everything up from before hand. We will continue to see this in the next chapter.
Have a wonderful day.